Since last autumn, Russia has continued to conduct covert mobilization, and is currently considering an additional draft of 450,000 people, said Budanov, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, in an interview with Radio Liberty. He noted that this issue "has not been fully resolved yet."
Budanov emphasized that last autumn, about 350 thousand Russian citizens were drafted as part of a "partial mobilization". After that, the hidden mobilization continued, adding 20-22 thousand people to the army every month.
"By itself, this leads to the following question: why such a number, if the losses are, as they say, negligible? Well, you will see that the truth is somewhere in the middle," Budanov said.
